Investing in a charity album and benefit concert featuring the all-star likes of Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam, R.E.M., and Tom Petty seems like a no-brainer, right?
That’s the exact con that an American musician nearly managed to pull off, duping investors out of more than half-a-million dollars towards a fake charity after convincing them through a series of defrauding that he had the A-list connections and credentials to make it happen.
Portland-based singer-songwriter Kasey Anderson has been sentenced to nearly four years’ jail time after tricking up to 30 investors out of US $586,000 between 2009 and 2011 towards his non-existent music charity campaign, as Seattle Post-Intelligencer (via Stereogum) reports, instead funnelling the dollars into his own solo career.
“…boasting songs contributed by politically minded bands like Arcade Fire, Pearl Jam, and even a superstar collaboration between Springsteen and Lady Gaga.”Anderson’s elaborate scheme began with telling investors that he was organising a charity concert and album for the benefit of the West Memphis Three, the trio of teenagers who were convicted in 1994 for murder and served 18 years of their sentence before being released in 2011.
The music con man claimed he had agreements for a compilation titled Trapped Like A Ghost, boasting songs contributed by politically minded bands like Arcade Fire, Pearl Jam, and even a superstar collaboration between Springsteen and Lady Gaga (that should have raised alarms).
To convince investors of his project’s authenticity, Anderson’s illegal activities included: impersonating the managers of Tom Petty and Johnny Depp and a prominent Seattle tour manager, forging fake email accounts from music industry bigwigs and even a family member of one of the West Memphis Three defendants, faking documents showing his project had earned $1.7 million in advanced sales and falsified bank statements.
(Photo: Jason Kempin/Getty. Source: Stereogum)
Anderson’s claims seemed more desperate as the two-year ploy wore on. Allegedly, he even played previously released Springsteen songs – 80s hits ‘Don’t Back Down’ and ‘Blood Brothers’ – for potential investors and attempted to pass them off as new material the Boss had recorded with Arcade Fire. None of the artists named had any knowledge of the project.
The musician even brought his own music int the mix, managing to solicit investment towards an album that had already been released in 2006 by another artist as his own. He did eventually release his own album, but then lied about inflating record sales in an effort to appease money-lenders who had trumped $90,210. Anderson also racked up more than $3,000 on a friend’s stolen credit card on his own music in order to finance a trip to California.
Anderson pleaded guilty to his crimes last August, claiming mental illness and drug problems in his defence. While many of the investors have been left out of pocket from his grand scam.
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Sentenced to nearly four years in a US District Court last week, Judge Ronald B. Leighton ordered Anderson to repay US$ 594,636 in restitution, calling his offense “a serious one … you let down a lot of people.”
In a recent letter to the court attempting to apologise for and justify his actions, Anderson wrote: “I am a deeply flawed and mentally ill person who made some terrible choices, causing so much emotional and financial damage to others.”
Describing the incidents as a relapse that won’t occur again, he continued: “I am so sorry for what I’ve done and want so badly to make it right. “I lied to myself and others, and believing those lies, I told myself consistently that whatever was going on with me … I convinced myself that it was normal.”
